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Dissecting The Brad Pitt Fight Club Workout To Find The Best Strategy To Build The “Brad Body”

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This week’s “Motivational Monday” is focused on none other than Brad Pitt in his role as Tyler Durden. Yes, I realize it’s been quite a while since Fight Club came out (1999), but this movie has made such a large impact in the fitness industry and it is still seeing the ripple effects. I can’t imagine too many out there not motivated by the famous Brad Pitt Fight Club Workout and the amazing shape that he was in for this movie.

“The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you do NOT talk about Fight Club. Third rule of Fight Club: someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule: one fight at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: no shirts, no shoes. Seventh rule: fights will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight”

I really don’t want the focus of my blog to be towards celebrity workouts… I’m honestly not an authority on them nor do I think that they are “special” routines that will produce amazing results for everyone. There are, however aspects to some of them that will help you in your fitness training routines. Let’s look at Pitt’s workout for this film and see what takeaways we can incorporate.

Brad Pitt Fight Club Workout

Pitt used a semi-bodybuilding type workout. Normally I wouldn’t suggest this approach but you have to take into account the exceptional condition he has been in throughout his career. Not only has he always had a somewhat muscular physique, he’s also always been very lean. If you Google him, you will find most of his pictures have him looking lean & toned: Brad Pitt Workout Pictures

Tyler Durden’s Stats
Brad Pitt weighed about 155lbs′(he’s 6 ft. tall) in Fight Club and was at 5-6% body fat – pretty “small” but you can see how shedding fat will actually make you appear bigger and give you a much more impressive physique!

Pitt’s workout was based on a training routine targeting only one muscle group per day. He did 3 sets of 15 reps per exercise and rested for 1 minute between sets. The amount of weight he used caused him to reach failure on his last rep but still be able to keep good form – training to failure isn’t something I usually endorse either. It is a great way to add size though!

After 4 straight days of resistance training, Pitt hit cardio to ensure that his body remained in a fat burning mode. Here is an overview of his Fight Club workout:

The Workout You Should Do To Get The “Brad Body”

Sounds funny: “Don’t do Brad Pitt’s workout if you want to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club.” I know, but hear me out…

The main reason he looks so good is because of his low body fat.

He really doesn’t have that amazing of a build (critically speaking, of course). If you look at his physique his chest isn’t spectacular, it’s ripped so it looks great, and his traps and lats aren’t off the charts either, also ripped so still looking great!

His best assets are his arms and shoulders. That is what makes him look a little bigger than he really is as far as muscle size.

Oh yeah, he’s also got some of the coolest abs ever!

If you want to achieve this look, you must be at a low body fat percentage. As was mentioned, Pitt is at about 5% – that is very low and very impressive. My guess is that the average “fit” guy is around 12% (women probably around 25%) and would benefit greatly by dropping down to around 8% (20% for women) – that is when you are really going to start seeing the type of definition that will give you the Tyler Durden look.

Why Was Brad Pitt’s Workout So Effective?

Overall, I honestly wouldn’t recommend this style workout for everyone, but if you have worked your butt off to get lean or are already a lean person than this workout would be adequate. A far superior approach would be to follow Rusty Moore’s Visual Impact Muscle Building. You can read more about it and checkout my before and after pics here.

Adding Muscle to a Lean Body
What made this so effective for him was the fact that he was already down to such a low body fat percentage. If you are skinny, or very lean, that is the perfect time to build muscle. If you have a few pounds of fat to shed (or more than a few) I would recommend going on a diet to look like Brad Pitt first.

The diet that practically all of my fitness colleges, as well as myself, use to shed fat on demand is Eat Stop Eat. The main goal here is to find a diet that you can follow and maintain long enough to get ripped.

Once you have dieted down and maintained your new weight, your skin is going to be used to the small version of you. When you add bulk to your already tight skin you get the “shrink wrap effect.” This is the same method that Taylor Lautner used (by accident) when he got in such great shape for his role in Twilight and it is the reason the Brad Pitt Fight Club workout worked so well for Pitt.

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy “stuff” we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won’t. We’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off”

I agree – that would be nice to know! I know that he has always been lean and ripped. It does look like he added some size but at 155lbs / 6ft. isn’t very big so I doubt that he built too much muscle for this movie. The overall goal was to look like a scrapper/fighter that could deliver a beating – I think he achieved that look quite well.

Nice post, if you only knew how long I’d spent searching for that routine back in the day!

You’re totally right though, its the low bodyfat that makes him look as impressive as he does and its the key for most of us. When I figured this out I was able to cut back on my training volume and actually get in better shape.

I’d agree with everyone else. The low fat is really key. I actually thought he looked better in Troy since he was packing on more muscle. The Fight Club abs are still top notch though. However, as with all celebrity workouts, it’s not so much the routine as the fact that they have so much time to exercise and have to dedicate themselves to eating flawlessly. It’s worth it for those multimillion dollar roles but those of us who have to work and come home to a family can’t necessarily be expected to obsess as much. Fortunately, there are plenty of workarounds to getting a great body without dedicating our entire lives to fitness.

Exactly Dave. Most people could achieve this look with proper dieting and hours in the gym… and a fat check awaiting! With a reasonable diet, resistance training workouts, and a combination of the right types of cardio, you can still achieve a great look in a fraction of the time celebrities spend!

It’s amazing how Brad Pitt in Fight Club and Taylor Lautner in Twilight has changed people’s perception of fitness and the male body. While everybody may have not understood what Fight Club was about, the movie changed their definition of what a fit man was.

That’s a pretty hard core workout routine! Brad Pitt’s body is notorious. He has bulked and cut himself for several roles already. Hard core training and an effective diet plan will definitely set you up with such form.

Yep, there’s no denying that he trains hard for his roles. I was really impressed with the results he got from the Troy workout as well … this one just seems to be more popular and revolutionary as far as the lean look goes.

I could not find ANYWHERE where Brad eluded to his ab training. Really, this doesn’t come to me as too much of a surprise either. For most people, getting a six pack or abs is merely a matter of low body fat percentage … and yes, your core is almost always engaged while working out.

Good stuff, Kevin. I was happy that fitness took more of a turn (or at least realization) in the “toned”, rather than “bulky”, direction after this movie, because it gave smaller guys like me something realistic to work towards. I much prefer running and biking over lifting, so low body fat is a lot more enjoyable to achieve than packing on muscle, though the latter is still a piece of it. I’m not sure if this movie was part of the cause or part of the reaction, but it’s still nice that it got out there. Thanks again for the workout and commentary.

It really is nice that a more natural look is getting popular. For naturally bigger guys, a lot of muscle looks better on them. For naturally smaller guys, just having a decent amount of really defined muscle looks good too!

Good point, but I believe that he was probably just doing medium intensity warmups on the beginning sets. Whenever I am doing any kind of strength training I never jump into my max for a set number of reps.

For example, when I do bench press I might do 5 slow reps with 135lbs for the first set. On the second set I’d jump to 185 for 5 and then on the third, fourth and fifth I’m at about 225 … planning on these latter numbers increasing of course! ;D

Thank you Kevin for the tips! I started my health adventure two months ago weighing a measly 120 lbs at 6′ foot tall (I know I am scrawny haha) but the plus side I see is I am working with a blank canvas. With your tips ,routine,.and 3500- 4000 calorie a day intake I am now at 134 lbs with very little fat in just two months! I’m very VERY excited to see the progress every day! My goal is 180 lbs in the next six months I will fill you in on the progress, and again thank you for helping me achieve something I’ve always wanted.

Do you guys think this is a good workout for a guy that just started working out ?I’m 6’1 and weight 146.I’m pretty weak.I still wanna be slim but ripped.
Congratulations on this site.it has alot of useful info:)

Hey Kevin!
I just wondered if Brad was working out his legs and abs In this workout?
Or was the leg workout supported by the running? And the abs’ just a result of the low body fat?
I’ve heard that it’s important så workout your leg muscles!

There is no need to get skinny first then start lifting, I actually have a friend who went from 200+ down to 130ish without lifting or working out & now he has to much excess flab to look ripped. If you want to lose weight & look ripped I’d suggust lifting while dieting so you don’t create that extra flab.